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Balancing Means of Escape and Security | Pt 2 - Risk Assessment
When attempting to balance means of escape issues with the security of your building, various factors should be examined in some detail. This blog series began last week, looking at the cost of criminal damage, arson and burglary compared to the risk of securing your premises at the expense of fire safety. We continue by examining effective Risk Assessment strategies in relation to security and fire safety.
Fire and Security Risk Assessment is not a new concept; it is merely a practical and methodical approach to identifying problems and providing solutions. In this context, its primary purpose is to:
- Identify actual risks
- Identify hazards
- Establish risk of hazards being realised
- Evaluate existing safety/security measures
- Evaluate compensatory features which may reduce the risk to an acceptable level
Once the risk assessment is complete, it is possible to identify the most effective strategy and implement the one that will provide the optimum level of protection without causing conflict between fire and security issues.
Only by fully understanding what it is they want to prevent, can a manager select the most suitable strategy.
There are a variety...
Emergency Planning | Complete Fire Safety Management
Complete Fire Safety Management is all about ensuring that you have the tools necessary to ensure you meet all legal requirements and, most importantly, that your working environment or residential space is safe for workers, visitors and occupants.
An Emergency Plan is an essential part of what CFSM has to offer and in this blog article, we will give an overview of the thought processes required to compile your own.
Why is a workplace emergency plan necessary?
The purpose of the workplace emergency plan is primarily seen as two fold;
The plan is legally required to be fully documented and kept in the workplace such that it is available for all employees, and employee’s representatives (where appointed), to view at all times. This ‘documentation’ usually takes the form of what is commonly termed the company Fire Manual/procedures...
Evacuation Lifts
- Must comply with British Standard
- Fire resisting construction
- Backup power supply
- Return to ground or other pre-arranged floor when alarm actuates
- Must be operated by competent person with key
- Do not respond to floor lift call buttons
- Can be incorporated into PEEPs
...
Travel Distance
- More than one direction of escape?
- Type of risk - high, normal, low?
- Sleeping area?
- Production area?
- Residential care?
- People with disabilities?
Refuges
Refuges are designated areas, protected by fire - resisting construction in which people with impaired mobility can wait assistance. Refuges should, if possible, be sited on each floor adjacent to the stairways forming the escape route. Alternatively, a protected corridor, or even the stairway landing itself, may prove suitable. However, use of an escape route for this purpose must not hinder the evacuation of other occupants.
Each refuge should accommodate the number of disabled people located on that floor, including wheelchair users, and include alternative direction of escape. It should also have some means of communicating with the Security Desk, Reception or whoever controls the evacuation in your workplace.
A trained team can help the evacuee to safety by means of an approved evacuation lift or other method. Where delay may occur in carrying out the evacuation, it will be very reassuring to have someone else remain with the evacuee until the situation is resolved.
Refuge areas should be adequately signposted, and clear instructions for use provided within.
- Protected landing, lobby or corridor
- Minimum half hour fire resistance
- Alternative direction...
